Singapore, Mar 08, 2010: Syntarga, the antibody-Drug Conjugate (ADC) company, has entered into research collaborations with two undisclosed top-15 pharma companies. These latest greements, adding to a total of five collaborations with top-15 biopharma companies, exemplify the growing interest in Syntarga’s Potent Payload technology to empower anticancer antibodies.

Lack of efficacy of unconjugated (naked) antibodies is a problem in oncology. Syntarga said its Potent Payload Technology combines extremely potent, proprietary duocarmycin toxins, a class of DNA minor groove binding agents, with unique, proprietary linker technologies. The company has generated a strong biological data package for its synthetic Linker- Drug payloads conjugated to various antibodies against a variety of tumor targets, including Trastuzumab/Her2.

Under the scope of the two research collaborations, ADCs will be evaluated based on various Linker-Drug chemistries and a variety of antibodies. Based on ongoing discussions, the company is optimistic that research collaborations will be started with a number of additional top-tier biopharma companies in the near future.

Syntarga has only recently achieved the current Proof of Concept status for its latest generation of ADC chemistries. "These collaborations illustrate the strength of the Potent Payload preclinical data and underscore the increasing interest of major biopharma players in our proprietary ADC technology" said Dr. Vincent de Groot, Chief Executive Officer of Syntarga.